An article from this Sunday’s New York Times about another guilty pleasure of mine, TLC’s original show Trading Spaces, which author Julie Salamon describes pretty accurately as “‘This Old House’ as game show and soap opera.” Hey, I don’t pretend to understand the show’s appeal, any more than I pretend to understand why some people like Iron Chef. I don’t seek Trading Spaces out, couldn’t tell you with any certainty when it’s on (although the article seems to suggest always), and I don’t even fit into any the main audience demographic groups, which are apparently “teenage girls, gay men, compulsive re-arrangers and people who like to watch ‘Friends.'”

But I do like the show. “‘Trading Spaces’,” writes Salamon, “is deliberately unpretentious, with a predictable routine and a regular cast of distinctive characters — including Ty and Amy, the sexy male and female carpenters whose tool belts tug suggestively on their low-slung jeans.” Maybe that’s the appeal. A cute girl who’s handy with a beltsander. Television could do worse.